Posts Tagged "Municipal Utilities"

“The whole utility paradigm has shifted. We really are doing our ratepayers a disservice by not considering all viable options.”

– Reiko Kerr, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s senior assistant general manager of power systems, regarding a decision by the utility to put a hold on a $2.2 billion plan to rebuild several old natural gas power plants while it studies clean energy alternatives.

Florida Power & Light has filed a petition with the Florida Public Service Commission seeking permission to close a 1,300-megawatt coal-burning power plant near Jacksonville at the end of 2017. The St. Johns River Power Park, which is co-owned by...

The two Nebraska utilities operating a coal-burning power plant south of Lincoln, have agreed to dissolve a decades-old contract for 30 percent of power generated by the plant. The boards for both Lincoln Electric System and Nebraska Public Power District, which owns...

The city of Duluth, Minnesota is embarking on a new $21 million energy initiative geared toward cutting coal consumption by 40 percent. The project was unveiled at a press conference on April 12 held symbolically in an empty coal bin at the city’s coal-burning power...

The Madison, Wisconsin city council has unanimously approved a resolution committing to 100 percent energy from clean, renewable sources, becoming the 24th city in the United States to make such a promise, according to a tally by the Sierra Club. The resolution sets a...

“This would save us money, and that will eventually hit our ratepayers’ pocketbooks in a good way.”

– Hannibal, Missouri public works manager Robert Stevenson on the city’s approval of a contract to meet up to 20 percent of its annual electricity needs with wind energy, saving the city $720,000 a year in energy costs. The deal is predicated on the completion of the Grain Belt transmission line, which would carry wind from Kansas eastward.

The San Diego County Water Authority and the city of San Diego recently are considering a new pumped storage project at the San Vicente Reservoir as a possible means of helping the region meet future energy needs. The backbone of the project would consist of an...

County commissioners in Traverse City, Michigan have unanimously adopted a resolution committing to source 100 percent of the energy for municipal operations from wind, solar, geothermal and landfill gas by 2020. They have created a Green Team to identify ways...

“Cities can help shift the culture so there is more support for renewable energy at the state level and around the country.”

– Traverse City, Michigan Mayor Jim Carruthers regarding city council approval of a resolution to shift all of the city’s operations to 100 percent renewable energy by 2020. Currently, the city utility gets 43 percent of its electricity from coal,11 percent from renewables, 9 percent from natural gas and 37 percent through market purchases.

In an ironic twist, residents of Colstrip, Montana, the home of the second largest coal-burning power plant in the West, are being asked to limit their water use so the plant continue to operate safely. The city’s mayor sent a note to 2,300 residents making the...

There is little doubt that California is by far the national leader in solar, with more capacity installed than any other state, but the numbers often cited as record-breaking fall far short of detailing the full story about how far in front of the rest of the country...

Despite Ohio lawmakers efforts to curtail renewable energy, communities such as the village of Minster are moving ahead with projects that include a combination of solar and energy storage. Minster’s municipal utility built a 4.3-megawatt solar project on 18...

A coal-burning power plant in Kentucky has become uneconomical and its continued operation will put customers at risk of substantial rates increases of up to 80 percent over the next nine years, according to an analysis by the Institute for Energy Economics and...

Salt Lake City has launched an initiative to transition the city to 100 percent renewable energy by 2032, and to cut carbon emissions citywide by 80 percent by 2040. The initiative, called Climate Positive 2040, comes as a result of a joint resolution signed by Mayor...

Many of the 1,700 electric cooperatives and municipal utilities in the U.S. are prevented from sourcing all but a small fraction of their power from local renewables by restrictive contracts with generation and transmission providers. Now, a landmark decision by...